


Under the Apple Tree

by hpbrat2



Series: Drabbles of Drabbleness [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Drabble, Families of Choice, Fluff, Gen, NaNoWriMo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-05
Updated: 2015-11-05
Packaged: 2018-04-30 03:07:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5148008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hpbrat2/pseuds/hpbrat2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry and Hermione have a heart to heart about family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Under the Apple Tree

**Author's Note:**

> This was written as a Word Sprint Drabble for NaNoWriMo2015 then cleaned up quickly with only one pair of eyes ever to see it during writing stage. It is rough, I will consider coming back to it and fleshing it out later, because I love their dynamic, but we'll see what ends up happening. I can't make any promises because I am not very good at timelines or deadlines...so...yeah.

Sometimes it was hard being around The Burrow. There was so much noise, so many people, so much chaos. It was constantly going. There was always somebody coming, somebody going, somebody shouting, or banging, or tripping, or clutter, or chaos of all varieties. And not only because it was a wizarding house. A large chunk of it was because of the sheer number of people who lived there.

For Harry and Hermione, it could be a bit…overwhelming at times.

Well, most of the time.

Hermione was the only child of an introverted couple. She had grown up with books being her friends and, the only noise regularly playing through her childhood home, was her father’s classical records.

Harry, too, was an only child. Sure, Dudley had been around when he’d been home, but, for the most part there was no way one Muggle boy could begin to compete with the amount of noise and chaos caused by even just Ron and Ginny, let alone their five other brothers. Petunia was meticulous about her house and rarely, if ever, turned anything on if Dudley or Vernon weren’t home with the telly on because it was easier to hear the gossip from the neighbors if she didn’t. So, for the boy who had spent most of his childhood alone in a cupboard under the stairs, it was often a sensory overload, and bordered on panic inducing.

Because of such, the pair of Gryffindors, the only brunettes in a sea of redheads, had found their escape out by the pond near the apple orchard. Hermione was sitting up against a tree, book in hand (as per usual), while Harry lay on the ground, his head resting on Hermione’s right thigh, her fingers carding gently through his hair as he dozed in the shade of the tree on the warm August morning. Ron and the Twins had gotten in trouble (yet again) and were de-gnoming the garden, but Mrs. Weasley had sent the two visitors outside while she and Ginny worked to clean up the purple goopy mess the other three boy had managed to spread through the entire lower half of the house.

“Do you miss it?” Hermione asked Harry out of the blue.

“Miss what?”

“Not having a sibling? Sometimes, when Ginny is complaining about something one of her brothers did, all I can think is that it would be nice to have a brother.”

“No.”

“No? You didn’t want someone to play with growing up? Someone to get in trouble with or to get out of trouble with?”

He opened his eyes, squinting against the vibrancy of the green leaves above their heads. “Maybe when I was younger, but I don’t now.”

“Why not?” 

“Because I have you.” He grinned at the dumbstruck girl. “You’re my sister, Hermione. Sometimes you’re my nagging older sister who refuses to let me do less than my best. Sometimes you’re a bit of a worry wart, okay, more than sometimes, when I do something stupid or dangerous. But I always know that you are there. That you’ve got my back, just like I’ve got yours.”

She pushed his head to the side playfully, but he could see the tears welling in her eyes. For the girl who had grown up alone, with no siblings, no friends, and parents who worked more than they were ever home, having him say that was a bit too much. “You don’t mean that,” her voice was soft, but he could hear the roughness in it.

“Yeah, I do. You’re my sister, Hermione Granger, whether you think so or not, that is how I see you.” He grinned at her and handed her a dandelion. “How ‘bout it? Siblings?”

She threw her head back and laughed, but took the dandelion from him anyway. “Of course we are, little brother,” She messed up his hair further before going back to her book.

Several years later, Harry grinned at her as he finished fixing her flower crown before she walked down the aisle to meet up with her husband. He slipped a dandelion into the warm fall tones of her crown just above her left ear. “This doesn’t change anything, sister mine.”

She hugged him tight, tears threatening to spill out. Her parents had died during the war, casualties they hadn’t been able to prevent, but Harry had been with her every step of the way, comforting her through bad breakups, exam stress, grieving, battles, and everything in between. And now, _now_ , he was the only one she felt deserved the right to symbolically give her to somebody else, to give her away at her own wedding. “I do love you, Harry. I hope you know that.”

“I know, Hermione. And I love you too, always will, no matter where we end up in life.”


End file.
